That girl over there
by coaldust5
Summary: AU! first fanfiction. What if Peeta and Katniss had the courage to talk at school and to become close without the hunger games but not without complications. sorry if its terrible and my spelling and gramma are bad to but try to enjoy... rated T cause I don't know what direction this is going to go so just incase :)
1. Chapter 1

Peeta's POV:

It was the first day of school when I first saw her. The little girl with the two long, dark braids, red dress, olive skin and big piercing, silver eyes. My father pointed her out when he saw that me gazing at her, he chuckled and bent down ant whispered in my ear,

"See that girl over there?" he said pointing at her "I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner."

I looked up at my father, he just sighed and I looked back at the girl she was standing with a thin woman who had long, pale blond hair and a little toddler in her arms, was beautiful. I was confused and wondered why a merchant would want to marry a coal miner instead of a baker.

"Why? Why did she marry a miner and not you?" I asked my father

"Because of his voice, when he sings the birds stop to listen." he says simply.

I stare back at the girl, yes her mother was beautiful, but she was something more, something different than I have ever seen, something about her was drawing me in.

"Come along boy I'll introduce you to her." He said standing up and giving me my lunch and guided me over to the blond woman with the little child in her arms and the little girl in the red dress. We come to a stop in front of them, the girl looked up at me with her big eyes and she looked like she was judging weather I was a threat or not. Her face turned from defensive to curious as she studied me.

"Why hello Lillian, it's good to see you again, it has been a while," says my father giving the girl's mother a genuine smile "is it little Katniss's first day too?" he asked looking down at the little girl. Katniss. That was her name, I liked it.

Katniss took her eyes of me and looked up at my father and gave him a stiff nod and turned back to looking at me.

"Farl, it has been too long. How have you been how is your wife Mera?" the blond woman asks.

"Fine, how are Eric and the little one? What's her name again?" he asks adoringly as he studies the little child in its mothers arms and waves at it, I know he always wished for a daughter and not all sons.

"Oh they are good, here is little Primrose we thought it match her with her light hair. She's one." says the woman as she looks down at her child in her arms her eyes expressing so much love. I don't think my mother ever looked at her children like that.

I don't pay much attention to the rest of their conversation; I'm too focused on the girl in front of me, studying her appearance as I assume she is doing to me. She meets my eyes, hers staring right into me, her eyes are so intense in a good way I don't want to stop looking, I can't. I like her eyes best. She looks as if she is going to smile at me for a second, but suddenly she turns away grabbing her bag, hugs her mother and walks off. This makes me sad. Then I feel pressure on my shoulder I look up snapping me out of my trance. My father is pushing me along the hall.

"Come on son, the bells went you don't want to be late the first day!" my father say in a booming voice. I start off but then think of something and turn back.

"Dad, I want to marry her one day!" I say to him with a grin on my face. I do, I do want to marry her one day I want her to be my wife and I her husband, I want to be able to look at her beauty everyday for the rest of my life. With one look I want to marry that girl. Katniss, she is not pretty or beautiful she is as radiant as the sun. As I run off to class I realize I am a goner.

Katniss POV:

The boy was looking at me funny with his crystal blue eyes so deep I can't look away from them. His blond curls that look like they were attempted to be combed back but fall onto his forehead. He is taller than me, I'm about up to his nose which is small and round so unlike my father's which it is large and pointed. He is wearing brown pants that look like they were handed down from his brothers and an off white button down shirt. He has big hands and a goofy smile on his face that almost makes me laugh. I feel the edges of my lips start to tug up before the bell snaps me back to reality I turn hug my mother's leg quickly and say a quick and quiet goodbye to little prim and walk quickly down the hallway leaving the goofy smiling blond boy behind me.

I find my way to class easily the school is pretty small. I walk into a room where the blond haired blue eyed children are separated from the dark haired gray eyed ones. The merchant children eyeing the Seam kids with disgust and turning back to their friends and whispering, they do the same to me when I walk in. I don't care though, I just go sit at the back by the window and look out of it.

A little blond girl with ringlet curls down her back walks in anxiously with her head down and walks up near me and looks up at me.

"I-ca-can I sit next to you?" she asks in a quiet voice and looks over to the other merchants that are staring at her and whispering even worse than they did with any of the seam kids. I give her a quick nod and she sits down "Um hi I-I'm Madge, Madge U-Undersee." She says hesitantly.

She must be the mayor's daughter. I don't understand why the merchants are eyeing her she's one of them. They must be jealous of her, thats why.

"Hello, I'm Katniss Everdeen" I try to say in a formal voice that just makes her look sad.

"Please, Please don't treat me differently like that" she says almost pleadingly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Ok then Madge" I say. She looks up and gives me a little smile and looks back down.

I look around the room just as the baker's boy comes in the room with a plump little blond girl with a smile on her face. They also don't go over to the merchant kids they just take their seats up the back near us on Madge's side. The boy's eyes on me the whole time as the girl next to him talks, he gives me a small smile and I return it and look back to the window as the teacher comes in.

Mrs. Philips just gets us to introduce ourselves and do drawings the whole class. Mine are terrible, I tried to draw the woods and my father and I's special place. As soon as the bell rings for morning break I screw it up and chuck it in the bin and walk out the door with Madge.

Peeta's POV:

I find Delly in the hall as I walk to class she runs up and hugs me. Me and Delly have always known each other and have been friend forever. We continue walking to our first class when we walk in the room I instantly find her. Katniss, just thinking her name makes me smile. Delly keeps going on about what the classes will be like but I'm too fixated on Katniss to care what they will be like. As we walk to the back where there are seats I give her a smile and she actually smiled back! This I loved.

The teacher asks us to introduce ourselves. I wait for Katniss's turn since I don't know her last name.

"Katniss Everdeen." She says and I realize it's the first time I've heard her voice. I love that too.

After that we got to draw for the rest of the time. I look at what Delly's drawing, it's a horse in the meadow near the fence and it's pretty good. Then I look at Katniss who looks frustrated at her work. She scowls, this is the thing I think I like the least, she looks more pretty when she smiles. That's what I want to draw.

When I'm almost done Delly looks over at my drawing and then at Katniss and smiles, "It looks just like her, Peeta." She says nothing more. Then the bell rings, I start to grab my stuff when I look up to see Katniss almost at the door scrunching up her drawing and chucking it in the bin and walking out the room with the mayor's daughter.

I frown as I walk past the bin. I ask Delly to wait for me and go back and dig around the bin for her drawing. I find it a crumpled mess, so I unfold it. It's the woods beyond the fence and there's a log cabin and a lake it isn't exactly a perfect drawing but it makes me want to know if this place is real. I flatten the piece of paper a bit more and gently put it in my bag and catch up to Delly.

...

The day's gone by like a blur when I see Katniss she is always either with Madge or by herself. But I don't have the guts to go up to her so I just hang out with Delly and a couple other merchants like Benson Cert he is the grocers son he has dirty blond hair and a skinny build, Peppy Sunder she's the florist's daughter and has yellowish frizzy curls that go to her shoulders and seems to get on well with Delly since they are both quite easy to please, Mart Capers he is the butchers nephew and has a very stocky body and freckles and Jeneal Pierce who is the tailors daughter she wears fine clothes and has her long strait pale blond hair in a ribbon, I don't like her much she's a bit mean but she keeps talking to me and trying to hold my hand.

After lunch we have some music thing I just follow Delly. The music teachers name is Mrs. Trester she has pale blond hair that sits on top of her head fanning out in crazy directions. She is very curvy and wears colourful clothing. Her excited and strange voice reminds me of some of the capitol people.

"So does anyone here know the Valley Song?" she says excitedly. Everyone knows this song but know one want to sing out loud to the rest of the class especially not me. But on hand shoots strait up from the corner of the room. Its Katniss, I smile to myself, happy that I get to hear her voice again. She stands up confidently and makes her way up front to the stool and sits down and starts to sing.

I have never heard a more beautiful voice in my life, her voice is sweet and high but powerful at the same time. I am mesmerised by it, I don't want it to end, but it does. Everyone is silent even the birds outside not a sound for several seconds until Mrs. Trester asks everyone to give her a clap for her singing. I clap immediately and loudly and so does Delly, Madge has a genuine smile on her face and is clapping softly and others clap quietly too but almost all the merchant girls just stare at her with jealousy and anger. Katniss doesn't pay much attention to them but looks at me with a quick smile, one that if you blinked you would have missed it and sits back down next to Madge who still has a little smile on her face. Then the bell goes and the days over.

I make my way to the school gate with my eyes on Katniss who is about twenty meters in front of me when she breaks into a sprint. She runs to a tall stocky man covered in coal dust, he scoops her up and puts her on his shoulders and they start to head for the Seam.

I see my father just outside the gate with my two older brothers I make my way to him and we start home.

"Did you talk to her today at all son?" my father asks me referring to Katniss.

"No, but she smiled at me and I drew a picture of her smile." I say now sad that I actually hadn't spoken to her. He just smiles and takes my hand and leads me back to the bakery and sneaks me a cookie under my mother's nose.

I go up to my room with the two drawings wondering where to put them where my mother won't see them because she would be angry, she doesn't like people from the Seam . I decide to pin then on the bottom side of my bed so I can look at them when mothers angry because that where I go when she is. I go back down to help with the bakery where my mother isn't in a very good mood at all.

That night I grab my blanket and pillow and put them under my bed and sleep there for the night looking up and the drawing of the woods with the cabin and lake and the drawing of Katniss I drew and whisper goodnight and drift into a peaceful sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey sorry this chapters pretty bad I don't like it so sorry, but thankyou heaps I got so excited when I got my one and only review so far for my first chapter and they liked it! Thankyou heaps! I just started writing to see if I was any good at all but I hope I am so people enjoy it. I really welcome constructive criticism or any idea anyone has so please review. Btw I don't own the hunger games **

Peeta's POV:

I still haven't talked to Katniss properly ever! Just little smiles and hi's in the hallway. I'm now twelve she's eleven it's time to pluck up the courage and actually talk to her and today I'm going to. I feel more for her now I can't stop it. I still know what I want though, the same thing I always have since I was five. I want to marry Katniss Everdeen.

My brothers found the drawings under my bed last year though thank god they didn't show our mother they have threatened to every time they want me to do something for them. I talked about how I feel with Delly last week when we were going to get candy from the sweets shop one day. When we walked in Melinda Hussings, a rather large fourteen year old girl with greasy blond hair and acne greeted us. As we walked around Delly out of the blue asked me.

"What is with you and Katniss, Peeta? You always look at her funny." Says Delly as she looks at a jar full of peppermints. I hesitate before answering, not really sure how I feel.

"I don't know what to say, I guess I've kind of felt something since the first day of school..." I trail off.

"So do you like her then?" she asks me simply

I think for a moment. No I don't like her, it's more than that. For years I haven't thought about a girl like I have about Katniss.

"I think it's more than that Del, but I've never really spoken to her. I don't think she will ever feel the same way I do." I say this because it's true

"Peeta, I am pretty sure that you are the only boy I have ever seen her smile at, and the only girls she smiles at is Madge, sometimes me and her sister Prim." She says almost forcefully. "You should talk to her." she suggests while she's purchasing a bag of peppermints. I buy mine and we walk out the shop and to her house. She tells me to remember what she said and walks inside. I thought about it the whole way home.

So I have decided today I will talk to her. I grab my stuff and shove a slice of stale bread into my mouth before leaving and head out the door.

I'm walking to school early I had to find Delly so she could help me. I was going to ask Delly if in English today if she could sit next to Madge so that Katniss and I could sit together. It sounded pretty pathetic but I didn't know another way to get her to really see me. I find Delly waiting on the front steps of the shoe shop waving at me. We almost always meet here and walk to school every day.

"Hey Peeta!" She yells running up to me. "You're a bit more early than usual. So what are we doing today?" she asks as if she knows I'm up to something.

"Well... I was wondering if maybe today you could sit with Madge on our table in English?" I ask hesitantly with my head down. She gives a little giggle.

"Why would you ask that Peet?" she says still giggling a bit.

"Well then I might sit next to Katniss..." I say still in my quiet voice.

"I knew you would finally do something to talk to her, but why make a big plan so she 'might' sit next to you? Why don't you just go up and talk to her like a normal person?" this did make some sense but I don't know if I just came up to her in the hallway and start talking to her if she would even want to talk to me or if she would just walk away like she does when other merchant children come up to her. I think I'll just see how today goes.

We make our way through the school gate and into the building and to our lockers. We have lockers now we are in the higher school because we have more books and things like that we have to have. I grab my English books and me and Delly make our way to the English room which is always open early where we find Madge sitting in her usual seat. She looks up at Delly skips over to her.

"Hey Madge, will you sit with me today? I'd really like it." Says Delly and with a genuine smile takes Madge's hand and gently pulls her over to our table.

"What about Katniss?" she says like she worried Katniss will be angry at her even though they hardly even talk in class. Delly's face lights up as she bends down and whispers in to Madge's ear. Madge gives a little giggle and looks up and smiles at me. Delly must have told her that I wanted to sit next to Katniss. I look down a little embarrassed. "Oh Peeta, that's really sweet." She says with another little giggle and turns back to Delly and starts talking about horses. Delly loves horses. I go sit down in Madge's spot and get out my sketchbook and start drawing random things.

After about ten or so minutes more people come walking in. A lot of them looking at me strangely, most likely because of where I am sitting right now. I don't care.

It is almost time for class to start as the last few people come in and take their seats and she still isn't here. As the bell goes I realize she must not be coming today, until I see a girl with dark brown hair and gray eyes come sprinting in to the room, just stopping in time to not go flying over the teacher's desk. She stands there bent over with her hands on her knees, red faced and puffing heavily. Some of the kids laugh at her as she steadies herself and stands up and meets my eyes.

Katniss's POV:

I run down the hallway a full speed. Prim hadn't waked me up this morning before feeding and milking her goat Lady. I hadn't had time to fix my messy braid that I wore to bed last night and I hadn't had time to eat breakfast either and I was starving! I come hurtling into the room just as the bell is going and almost run strait into the teacher's desk. I take a moment to catch my breath, I can hear kids laughing at me. I don't care.

I stand up and meet his eyes instantly. He's in Madge's usual spot next to me at the window while Madge is sitting on the table next to mine with Delly. I like Delly, she doesn't seem to care where I come from or anyone for that matter and I've never seen her say one bad thing about anyone. I guess the same goes for blond haired, deep crystal blue eyed boy sitting next to where I usually sit. Peeta, Peeta Mellark, the baker's boy, the boy with the bread. Despite his witch of a mother he seems really quite nice like his father who I've only seen a few times when my father takes me to the bakery with him when he trades the baker his squirrelsfor bread. The baker is usually too generous with his trades. For some reason I felt I couldn't turn away.

I eventually ripped my eyes from his and looked around the room for any other spare seats so this boy didn't have to sit next to me, I doubt he would want to sit next to me since I'm from the Seam. The only seats left were ones my some snobby merchants who were eyeing me and whispering to each other. I sigh and make my way to my usual table and stand in front of Peeta and hesitantly ask.

"May I sit here?" I ask quite formally with my head down.

"Yeah sure this is your usual spot, Delly just wanted to sit with Madge today. I hope your fine with me sitting here?" he asks with a small, hopeful smile as if he wants me to sit with him.

"No, I don't mind." I say quietly returning the small smile he gave me and take a quick glance to the snobby girls who are now looking at me clenching their teeth and giving me greasies with their eyes.

The teacher walks in and I slowly walk around the table and take a seat next to Peeta who is still smiling a bit more goofily than before and continues looking at me with his beautiful eyes. Wait! What? Did I just say his eyes were beautiful? Yes, yes I did. They were though, they were the nicest blue I think I have ever seen, nicer than the dresses and ribbons at the tailor's. They were shinny and deep, darker than the other merchants eyes, most of theirs were paler his were... Electric, electric blue I decide.

I let myself smile a little, in traced in his eyes. Then they change from happy to confused and then to worried, he is focusing on something over my shoulder. I turn to see what he is looking at. I was too busy staring at his eyes I had missed the big black smoke erupting from the Seam side of district twelve, turning the sky dark.

It can only mean one thing. The mine.


	3. Chapter 3

Peeta's POV:

Looking into the piercing gray eyes of the girl I've loved before I even knew exactly what a girl was, was amazing. Seeing her give me the first proper smile I have ever had from her was a privilege that I would never forget. Her dark hair sweeping into her eyes covering them slightly, I had to stop myself from sweeping it back behind her ear. I was too busy focusing on her I didn't see the black smoke filtering into the sky behind her on the Seam side of town. The mines.

She must have seen it in my face that I was distracted by something because she turned around to find what I was looking at. Her mouth hung open and her eyes clouded over, but her face quickly changed from shocked to focused. She didn't bother packing up her books she just quickly ran grabbed her bag and ran out the room without being dismissed. As did I.

I ran down the hallway as fast as I could to follow her when the emergency bell went off. This was only used if there was a fire or when something happened with the mines. I caught sight of her standing outside a lower year levels room with a little blond girl. Primrose her little sister stood in front of her sister with tears gushing out her eyes as Katniss put her bag on her shoulders for her. I ran up to them.

"Katniss!" I yelled as loud as I could until she turned around.

"Not now Peeta, I have to go!" she said with authority. "Come Prim, we have to go to the mine."

"Do you want me to come?" I asked quickly as they started walking away. She turned and glared at me with anger.

"Why do you want to come? None of your family is in danger! You don't have to worry that maybe you father might DIE at the bakery, do you? So why do you want to be there?" she said harshly, not leaving any of her anger out of her words. I hesitate before answering because I don'y know what to say.

"Because I want to be there for you," I say and her face slightly softens. "Because we're friends, right? And I could bring up some bread for you and your family while you wait for your dad to come out." I say trying to give her a hopeful smile though it doesn't work for her, but Primrose looks a tiny bit more hopeful.

"Thank you Peeta." Says littlie Primrose knowing her sister won't, though I don't care.

"Fine." Is all Katniss says to me and starts to walk off again dragging her sister behind her.

"I'll be there as fast as I can!" I yell and run straight for the bakery.

When I get to the bakery door huffing and puffing my father is there waiting for me, his face full of concern.

"Peeta I need you to do something for me." he says but I quickly interrupt him

"No dad. I need to get some bread and go up to the mines to give to the people waiting for people to come out." I say sternly. If I had said this to my mother I would have already been on the ground. But my father just went inside the bakery and came back a few seconds later with bundles of bread wrapped in brown paper and handed them to me with a sad smile.

"You do what you have to do, son." He says and makes his way back inside as I run off into the direction of the Seam.

When I get there, there is a big crowd of people all with dark hair their gray eyes fixated on the opening to the mine. Some children whimper and cry into their mothers or siblings arm others who are too young to understand either look confused or play with the other children who don't understand as well.

I look around and find a little blond haired girl crying and asking her also blond mother "what's wrong" or "what's happening" but her mother just stares at the big hole in the ground ignoring the pleads of her child.

Then I see Katniss who sitting on the black dirt and looking at her sister trying to get their mother to look at her while shaking her head. When she sees me approaching her she gives a sad smile but as soon as I am standing in front of her she bursts into tears. I have never seen her cry, I never thought it possible for her, but I quickly sit next to her and pull her closely to me as she cries on my shoulder.

After about half hour she's out of tears and her sister gives up on getting a reply from their mother so I pull out the bread and hand it to them. Prim takes some but Katniss just sits there still leaning on my shoulder.

"Katniss you have to eat." I say in a soft voice. She still does nothing

"Please Katniss, please." Her sister begs her and she finally gives in and takes a small bite of bread. "I'm going to see if ma wants some." Says Primrose as she rips some of to give to her mother who just ignores it.

It's starting to get dark now we have been sitting here for hours, but I don't mind I'm with Katniss though I wish it was different circumstances. They have pulled out a couple of men now but none of them her father. Some people have started a fire because it has started to get cooler. Katniss still hasn't spoken one word until after another couple men are rescued and their families have taken them home she speaks.

"A fair few years ago my father and I were in the woods," she pauses as if she's said some terrible secret to me. I know her and her father go in outside the fence that's the only reason we get any meat in any of our meals because we can't afford to go to the butchers. So I just nod at her to continue. "We were in a part of the woods I had never been in before so I asked where we were going and he said he had a special surprise for me. So we kept walking for a long time until I saw it. There was a big lake with lily pads and other flowers growing up from the water. There was also a wooden cabin on the other side. I asked my father if he knew how it got there but he said has been there since his father used to take him here at my age. That day he taught me to swim. The whole place was beautiful." She finishes her story. She doesn't look at me, or anything really her eyes are blank but she has a small smile on her face as if re-living the moment with her father. I know this place.

"Is that the place from your drawing?" I ask and she looks up at me confused.

"What do you mean?" She asks

"The first day of school when we had to draw a drawing that's what you drew wasn't it?" Her face is deep in concentration trying to remember and then changes to shocked.

"Yes it was our place I tried to draw, but I chucked it in a bin because it was terrible, I wish I kind of kept it now that h-he is most likely not coming home." She says with fresh tears streaming down her face. I have it. I have her drawing but I don't mention this because she is too upset right now I don't want to make it worse. I'll give it back to her at the right time.

"Don't say that, there is still ho-" I don't get to finish what I am about to say because of a man with light hair and a beard had a announcement.

" I am sorry but we could find no other people down there I am sorry for you losses please vacate these premises immediately!" he speaks over the crowd with no real emotion or empathy. I look back at Katniss who has gotten up from where she sat and grabs Primrose who is clinging to her mother and leads them back down the road to their house without a backward look. I stand there for few moments and few eyes boring into the back of my head I turn to see a tall seam boy glaring at me though I have no idea why so I just turn and make my way home.

On the way I see the Everdeen house so I drop the remaining bread on the veranda and walk back into town thinking about how Katniss shared a special story with me and didn't even look back at me when she left. I don't blame her though I am a bit hurt because she is hurt more than I could ever understand right now.


End file.
